in the current amazon chart it is at # 81. so nothing to do with any barcode error; only one new track which is easily downloadable, the fans will have all the rest of the stuff anyway, no one else wants to buy it. it's like that and that's the way it is.

there's no new remix cd to sell it likethere is with msp's and U2's, everybody's got the singlesanyway and 'hits' is formed fromthe bones of only 4 albums. the previous socialism of the groupseems to have gone west too what with jarvis doing ads for BTand what not, andthe last album was proggy, part tuneless and didn't selldespite the good reviews. like so many of thosegreat 90's bands (suede, blur) they're a good halfdecade past the sell by date.it's a shame though because only 2 readings agothey were headlining, went down a storm and got thebest reviews of the festival almost everywhere.

It was in Asda's Top 75. I bought a copy for Isabel, who likes them and doesn't have any of their stuff.

Marcello your argument applies to U2's G.Hits too. The question is - why does Pulp seem only to have committed fans? Ppl who *do* have all the stuff already so don't need this. Obviously GH records are designed to catch people who remember one or two singles they liked.

With Pulp I think there's two factors stopping their Hits being big.

- Pulp became prominent on the back of Britpop, they didn't drive Britpop's popularity. They started having big hits later than Blur, Suede or Oasis, for instance. I was at a wedding reception in '96 and the DJ played Country House, most people liked it - Roll With It, the place went mental - Common People, the floor cleared. Every kid who liked Britpop liked them, but they never really crossed over I think.

- Britpop now is pretty unfashionable. Pulp and Blur were the poppiest Britpop bands - Blur came back quicker with "Song 2" and shook off ideas about their sound, but Pulp's changes of sound never really caught people's imagination so they're still associated with their disco-fied, keyboard-driven big hits. That sort of sound has very little appeal to current NME readers, who seem to all love their rock'n'roll and would probably frown on the 'compromises' they'd hear in Pulp. So they dont even get big sales from that end of the market.

They took too long to follow up "Different Class". I think they DID cross over, but they didn't capitalise once they'd established themselves. (Note: they only slipped up commercially, This is Hardcore was well worth the wait, artistically speaking). "This is..." possibly wasn't the most poppy album in the world, and the dark, long title track was a poor choice of single (again, speaking commercially rather than artistically), so that didn't help. They took ages to follow that one up, too, so by then their day in the sun had completely gone. I still find it hard to believe that their Greatest Hits would come in THAT low, though. A mistake, surely? Even the Bluetones did better than that...

2. britpop unfashionable, and pulp never escaped being synonymous with it

3. terrible sleeve

4. too redolent of particular era (this is point 2 again really), but they seem more tied to 95 than anyone, and, until 95 becomes popular again, they'll be unfashionable (strangely, when it does become popular again, i think they'll lag behind oasis/blur again even though both of those are less specifically tied to 95).

the strange thing about pulp 'of the moment/the moments over thing' is just how quickly it was 'over'. that moment was feb96 when they did 'something changed' on top of the pops, and it did indeed feel that something had changed. right then. that time was gone. that minute. they've seemed out of place and wrong ever since, unable to escape this period

"is it over-speculating to say that when russell senior quit, they lost their "pop" element?"

I think there was just a sombre, post-fame mood about "This is Hardcore", I dunno if Russel's departure had much to do with it. They didn't seem to lose their sharpness, musically, they just lost some of their fizz.

My pet theory is that stuff 7 years old at any given time is at its least fashionable.

The shift from Senior to Webber as musical leader is a big deal I think - We Love Life is very much a Mark Webber album. I liked the transition but listening to the Hits comp the earlier stuff sounds a lot more focussed.

Radiohead always had a rep in the mainstream as being makers of SERIOUS, MOODY music, I think. The people who bought OK Computer wouldn't have been as thrown by Kid A / Amnesiac as some think. Pulp hit the big time as a quirky, fizzy pop group. A darker, moodier record + hesitancy to follow-up success = failure.

Reasons for commercial disaster are never cut and dried, though. There are probably hundreds of examples that go against what I've just said.

um, after pulp got very popular they couldn't cope with it (it took a while to reajust). Jarvis went to a lot of parties and yes, when senior left that was a blow. I did wonder for a while whether they would come up with a follow up to 'different class'.

i felt they took too long to come back (or it certainly felt that way).

You never hear any Pulp being used in ads, soundtracks, or in TV progs. You DO hear loads of U2, Oasis, Blur, so maybe Joe Public isn't prompted to remember that they exist, other than a vague recollection of Common People.

There are too many reasons not to buy :

The Kids - Pulp too old and squareSerious Rock Fan - will take Radiohead, but Pulp too flip and awkwardNon-loyal 'music fan'(me) - has everything they want alreadyReal Fan - only one new trackJoe Public - not interested/not heard of/too weirdCasual music fan 30-40 CDs a year - has Common People on one of those 'Best Album ever' (or whatever they're called) Britpop comps.

My own opinion - Hardcore and Life are by far the best albums they've ever done.

A few years ago I used to go to social gatherings hosted by thirtysomething friends - middle management, IT department, just having kids or trying for them, living in satellite villages. Middle England but still voting (New) Labour. They all had "Different Class" and at some point in the evening "Common People" would appear to liven things up. That's the audience Pulp lost with "This is Hardcore".

Yes, I know. I'm sorry but I fear I have caused the end of the world with my ignorance. I don't know how it slipped my radar when I have been so dilligent. I did go and check it out, I'm not too impressed with their decision as to what are their greatest works, but I guess it's what you need to sell records??? Plus the bonus CD, there's no tracklisting on the case. I can't justify spending $20 when I have no idea what's enclosed. I might already HAVE it.

Apparently "Misshapes" was left off because it was too 'Andrew Lloyd Webber' and the group all hate it.

Funny, every time I hear that song I imagine a full-tilt all singing, all dancing bloody great stage routine with twirling parasols and grubby urchins...

The Pulp DVD will sell more than the album, overflowing as it is with all sorts of fun stuff. Hits itself won't sell much, sadly, due to many of the reasons outlined above, but mainly because Pulp never fully capitalised on their moments in the spotlight - unsurprisingly, since they're not really capitalists. I can't imagine Pulp ever allowing one of their songs to be used on an advert, for example (lest we forget, they turned down Coca-Cola when they wanted to use "Sunrise" last year).

As to Jarvis appearing on ads and stuff, I think he (rightly IMHO) sees his own image and metastar status as being totally separate from that of "Pulp" the concept, so can use it however he likes without compromising Pulp's collective image.

Me, I love the last two albums, even though they both contain a couple of stinkers and half-finished water-treading exercises. Unlike any other recent band I can think of, they both lay bare in surprisingly candid terms the band and singer's mental state at the time of recording, and that's a sign of greatness from where I'm perched. Intro's still my number one tho.

I think, in time, Pulp will become one of those critics' bands like Squeeze, forever critically lauded for lyrical ingenuity, quirky charm and odd pop suss, but never again selling the huge amounts they once did.

This not strictly relevant to thread, but question for half-dozen or so other people who've actually bought the Hits CD: what exactly is the white bit of plastic with a D on it under the CD tray? Just curious, y'know.

and i will echo that it'd sure be nice if they played more dates up and down the coast. i only saw Pulp live when they did a few songs at the Tibetan Freedom Concert right after This Is Hardcore came out, that might've been the last time they played D.C.?

A...bonus, I guess: turns out someone's finally put the one 'lost' Pulp song from the mid to late eighties on YouTube, "Silence" -- this is the one that Jarvis refused to allow on the Masters of the Universe compilation and reissues since, according to this:

That features the only Fire track which hasn't been reissued: "Silence", from demos recorded in an old karate studio, written at that first rehearsal with Russell. Oh, it's so depressing, a two-note keyboard drone, someone playing one of those hunting horns you have on the living room wall and me alternately talking and screaming this story about a love affair that doesn't work out. I banned it from going on the Fire compilation, because it's terrible - I couldn't live with it being out.

feeling like I missed the boat on these guys, Different Class came out when I worked at college radio but I was kinda down on Britpop at the time and never really got into them ... now friends my same age were all getting super hyped for the shows and posting camera-phone photos of the big PULP stage sign and I'm strangely jealous

Yeah I was thinking the long 10+ hour drive I often make through NYC to points northward, and <i>those</i>are 10hrs., it just seems NYC is the bulk of the trip due to traffis slowing to a crawl so often there. Anyway DC to NY indeed much shorter, but silll aways from DC., esp. if you start in the morning and arrive in afternoon.

All I know is that it is technically classified as mid-Atlantic and definitely not part of New England. This was like middle school social studies basics guys. It doesn't really matter though. Anyway - Pulp! Best show I've ever been to probably. I want to see them again now.

god i'm so jealous at the west coast set lists i can't even deal!!! we basically just got the entirety of "different class" with a few other things from later albums. they better play more old stuff when i see them in spain!

And yeah -- a super long droney great version of "OU" -- and I still can't believe they did "Back in LA!" Imagine Jarvis on megaphone and the band making a huge racket -- if you had told me early Blur essentially ripped them off just from this I wouldn't've been surprised.

Oh and I forgot to mention: at one point, Jarvis doing an a capella (falsetto!) version of the chorus of Tina Turner's "Steamy Windows." Never in a million years etc. (Does make me think he would be a perfect dude for karaoke.)

Oh also, best T-shirt by a mile that night was some guy wearing a Suede shirt, classic logo and all -- on closer inspection, the small type above it was not 'The London' or any of that nonsense, it was 'Bernard Butler-era'